By Pastor Elbern Latorilla
A Bible school student, while doing a minor carpentry work in their dorm, hit her finger with the hammer. With obvious pain, she showed the spot where she was hit to one of her roommates who blurted out, "Praise the Lord!" I guess that was not the kind of response the hurt student was trying to elicit from her fellow student.
"Praise the Lord" has become a common expression among believers who often times use it glibly. To some, it is a kind of catchy slogan with no meaning to it at all. Others simply trivialize the phrase and see it as nothing more than the letters "PTL". However, the Bible reveals that praising the Lord is the expression of a believer's gratitude to God who is good and who has been gracious and merciful to him in abundant ways. The psalmist David exclaimed, "I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth." (Psalm 34:1). David gives us a beautiful example of what it means to truly praise the LORD.
Surely God wants us to praise Him. He deserves it. We are challenged by the writer of Hebrews to "continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips that give thanks to His name." (Hebrews 13:15). Does this mean simply saying, "praise the Lord" or there is more to the phrase than meets the eye?
The Bible shows two aspect of praise. One is to honor God for His attributes. Psalm 104:1 states, "Bless the LORD, O my soul! O Lord, my God, You are very great, You are clothed with honor and majesty!" The other aspect of praise is to remember God's acts and works and then give thanks for them. Psalm 107:8 encourages us, "Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men!"
True praise therefore involves declaring God's character (who He is) from a heart of love and exclaiming God's deeds (what He does) in behalf of His people from a heart that is thankful. This is the kind of praise that will be an acceptable sacrifice to the LORD.